Mike Baker

It has to protect military installations, strategic bomber bases, command centers, oil refineries, transportation hubs, ammunition depots, and major population centers spread across thousands of miles.

Not to mention the ring of air defense systems placed around Putin's personal residences.

Let's not forget those.

No nation possesses an unlimited number of interceptors.

At some point, difficult decisions become unavoidable.

Military analyst Rob Lee told CBS News that Russia may be consuming air defense missiles at an unsustainable rate as Ukraine expands its long-range strike campaign.

If that assessment is accurate, Moscow could face increasingly difficult choices about where to concentrate its defenses.

Do you prioritize the front lines, critical energy infrastructure, strategic military facilities, or the capital?

The attack on the Kupotnya refinery highlights that dilemma.

For much of the war, Moscow has been able to portray the conflict as something distant, something happening in Ukraine rather than in Russia.

But every successful strike against the Russian homeland makes that argument harder to sustain.

And every refinery fire, airport disruption, or explosion inside Russia raises new questions about the Kremlin's ability to protect its own territory and to protect its citizens.

All right.

Now, before we head to break, a quick reminder that the first episode of our new premium series, The PDB Dictator Files, is now available.

Join me as we examine one of the world's strangest dictatorships.

Of course, I'm talking about Turkmenistan.

And next week, we'll release our second episode, a deep dive into Juche, the ideology that drives North Korea.

You can find The PDB Dictator Files right now at pdbpremium.com.

Okay, coming up next, Xi Jinping launches a massive new purge inside the Communist Party.

Well, how very Mao of him.